Parks, Stories and Interpretation

NPR’s All Things Considered has a series running this summer on National Parks, and today they had two pieces, one about the Everglades National Park and one about Bryce Canyon National Park.  The Bryce Canyon piece had a great story about its rock formations, as imagined in a story told by the Paiute Indians.  It’s striking how strong the human motivation to explain the natural world is, and stories like this one reinforce this strongly for me.  I’m also chuffed that the Parks Service has a job title at Bryce Canyon called “chief of interpretation” - this man did an awesome job of telling this story.  Give it a listen at the links above, and the park’s website is here.

~ by ashok on July 1, 2008.